Tuesday, July 19, 2011

This is awkward. Kind of. When i had started to blog it was to make sure i could type perfectly and spontaneously. You could say I was getting ready to prepare myself for the TOEFL. just another rung of the ladder for reaching where I have reached at present. Ok, since this is a personal blog, let me give you a few updates now !

This is July 20th 2011. Wednesday. 11.38 a.m.

Eight months ago I was slowly but surely falling in love.

Seven months ago i was studying hard for my exams, absolutely sure i would do well in them.

Six months ago I was sitting in an exam hall, wondering why i hadnt studied as much was required.

Five months ago I was writing a letter to Her, professing my love for her. I also promised her that i would come close to her. And that was difficult because she was/is living in a land far far away.

Four months ago i was again studying for my exams. I was also studying for her exams. Thankfully both of them went well. i passed with honours. She, err.... well she passed !!

Three months back I came to know that I was granted a scholarship. That basically took care of my aspirations and my career. My personal life, as i could be close to Her, and my professional life, as I could finally get a foreign degree.

Two months and fifteen days ago I quit my job. i thank my employers for hiring me, but I had always wanted to study. No salary could keep me away from it.

I said goodbye to Jadavpur University two months back. I finished my course and graduated with honours.

A month and fifteen days ago i had an accident and had twenty stitches on my foot. I am recuperating from the same.

A month back mosquitoes started infesting my room. They bite me as i speak.

A fortnight back She came to my home. It was such a relief to see her. Not exactly the way I imagined it, but nevertheless it was fulfilling.

A week ago I had my twenty second birthday. I spent it with three of the most important people of my life. mom, Dad, and Her.

Four days ago I received my residence card. So now i just have to board the flight and I'll reach there. No frills attached.

Yesterday I installed Linux Mint.

Today my mom cleaned my wound and applied medicine.

Four hours ago I woke up.

Now I must scratch myself in places you shouldnt venture alone at night.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Learning has alays been an important aspect of our human lives. Classroom learning is a time-tested methodology for imparting education. In the present times, where technology enables us to enrol freely in distance learning and online computer classes where students can take classes and study at their own convenience. Yet, if we consider replacing classroom learning with the latter, I will not support the idea. And I wont, because of the following reasons.

Firstly, the lack of equipment is an issue. Learning is a right to each and every child, to each and every student in the world. And learning through online computer classes requires a computer, and an internet connection. Statistics from all over the world indicate that millions of families do not own a home, have no access to telephones or electricity. There cannot be a substitute for classroom learning, which costs more and gives the same intended output, knowledge.

Moreover, people with the education imparted through distance and online learning courses, often score lesser on the employability scale when compared to their classroom learning counterparts. The reason for this observation is that companies and businesses are, by inherent composition, preferably looking for traditionally educated people. Their businesses are headed by such people and in all likelihood they prefer people like themselves in the company.

Which brings us to the fact that many of these distance and online learning courses are actually not having any accreditation with central regulatory boards of education. With internet fraud being a very common-place incident nowadays, the certification of the courses , and the people teaching them, is certainly an issue. And in practice, this is one area where the distance or online learning courses fail to make the cut. Classroom learning is structured, and it follows a much more rigorous program of selecting teachers. More competent teachers mean better teaching. And better teaching entails better learning opportunities for students.

Finally we focus on the learning experience that a classroom entitles one to. When one is part of a classroom not only does he interact with the teacher, but also with his fellow students. He can interact with them, forming personal as well as professional bonds which may last a lifetime. He also gets the opportunity to discuss about the topics to be learnt and hence shares his knowledge with others, and in return gets a helping of whatever the others have grasped.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Curiosity killed the cat. And Diptyajit as well. Sometimes truth is so harsh, you want to turn back and can’t fathom it. Have a difficult time accepting it. But now you must decide. Between restraints of your emotions amounting to withdrawal in your shell as you have done in the past. And actually facing it for the first time in your life, knowing fully well the associated perils and anguish its likely to incite. You must contemplate between forgetting your own words including pretending nothing happened. And on the contrary, actually backing up your words with actions. Spend a real “sleepless night”. Thinking, weighing, deciding and facing your fears.

Uncertainity is probably what drives the curious soul. Uncertainity in electronic circuits, uncertainity in flying a helicopter, uncertainity of actually getting what you want. Drives your curiousity to the brink of an important decision. One that you must make with significant influence on your present and the future. It’s easy to “ not be bothered about the past”. Difficult to face it when it stares you down the eye.

There are really just two choices. One to finally learn and be an important person. One to refer to being important during sporadic conversations. The latter involving slow withdrawal, be it against your will to a state where you enquire about well being and studies. Being reduced to someone who only met you in university , or travelled with in a bus. Or a train. The former involving much more. Much more than just be worried about a chipped toe nail or a cold, which one catches while biking on a high cold wind. Much more than choosing electives for courses and being entwined with memories involving rain, inception, spring rolls, Deutschland and random conversations encompassing every thought and issue on the planet.

Four hours staring at the fan on the ceiling. A cup of tea. Pacing up and down the balcony, oblivious to the sounds created by urban chaos. Drowned in thought and decision. Finally sits down on the computer to write and vent out all what he’s been thinking. Decides to actually be there. Actually. Decides that he has to do this. Not by duty or by force, just has to. Has made the one feel again. Has made the one feel alive again. Invigorated the one with the one’s life, the one’s goals, the one’s preferences. The same things without which the one cannot be whole again. He will not back down. He will face his own fears , and the one’s as well.

Wears the sacred thread he was endowed with. Remembers rituals he was taught long ago. Worships the sun, and powers beyond his comprehension. Asks for strength for the times to come. Even though he is sure he has it. Reassures himself. Reassures the one. Will plunge now. Go deeper as ever.